Music
Prog
GIANCARLO ERRA
Nosound's mastermind and melancholic soundtracker on rediscovering the heart of his music, playing the Marillion Weekend in Italy and accidentally gathering enough material to make a mini-album.
4 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Father Figure
Singer-songwriter and the voice of the Genesis Revisited shows, Nad Sylvan has moved further away from his onstage persona with his latest solo album, Monumentata. He reveals the story behind the intimate record that pays homage to his late father and finds him mixing up influences - from Pink Floyd and Keith Emerson to The Addams Family!
6 min |
Issue 162
Prog
WHISPERS OF GRANITE
White Willow and Frequency Drift members team up for cinematic sounds.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
GRACE HAYHURST
Classically trained multi-instrumentalist lets rip on her complex debut.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Where Are We?
Stockholm instrumentalists Gösta Berlings Saga are back and celebrating 25 years of heady musical adventures with their seventh album, Forever Now. Driven by a thrill-seeking wanderlust to explore new sounds and the desire to remain recognisable, the band tell Prog they're always searching for something new, even if they're not actually sure what that is.
5 min |
Issue 162
Prog
MAESTROWORKS
Bringing a hard-rock swagger and the majesty of metal to their own brand of prog rock, Magic Pie break a six-year studio silence with Maestro. Frontman Eiríkur Hauksson tells Prog about being a metalhead in a prog world, writing songs at bus stops, and feeling the heat on Cruise To The Edge.
5 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Dogged Determination
Forty years ago this September, Kate Bush released Hounds Of Love. Her fifth studio record reinstated her position as one of the most innovative and creative artists of all time and yielded the (future) chart-topper Running Up That Hill. But its creation wasn't always smooth. Here's the story behind one of Bush's best-loved albums.
10 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Innovative And Uncategorisable
Born in the titular Kent city in the late 60s, the Canterbury scene spawned some of prog's most creative and quirky acts. From The Wilde Flowers and Soft Machine to Caravan and Gong, each had a distinctive sound and, in many cases, image that captured the hearts and minds of their followers. But the scene's impact didn't end in the 70s. Phil Howitt, Facelift editor and Hugh Hopper's biographer, explores the new breed of progressive acts inspired by it, both consciously and unwittingly, and unearths the secrets of the 'Canterbury chord'.
10+ min |
Issue 162
Prog
IN MEMORY OF DAVE COUSINS
Strawbs co-founder Dave Cousins died in July following a long illness. The singer, songwriter and guitarist enjoyed an active musical career spanning more than six decades and has been name- checked by many musicians as a key influence and inspiration. We reflect on his rich legacy and reveal plans for a number of posthumous releases, including the long-awaited new Strawbs album.
7 min |
Issue 162
Prog
GALAHAD
Forty years ago, a group of Dorset lads named their new band after a local fruit and veg delivery business, not an Arthurian knight as was widely perceived. They've since battled through numerous lineup changes and personal challenges, but Galahad never gave up on their musical quest.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Sounds Of Love
Kate Bush's fifth album combines hit singles with a seven-song conceptual suite, all expressing the unmistakable style of one of progressive music's most uncompromising visionaries. To mark 40 years of inspiration, The Anchoress, Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel, Auri's Johanna Kurkela, The Blackheart Orchestra's Chrissy Mostyn and Exploring Birdsong's Lynsey Ward celebrate the enduring magic and influence of Hounds Of Love.
6 min |
Issue 162
Prog
THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND
As his stint with late 60s psychedelic act Giant Moth and his largely spoken-word documentary/concept LP Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster attest, Alex Harvey's long, eclectic career was studded with prog-friendly episodes. It was in 1972, though, that the singer recruited the group that were his passport to all kinds of versatility. With The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, prog, hard rock, and a slightly sinister strain of mime and Weimar Republic-inspired theatricality were go.
1 min |
Issue 162
Prog
III Is The Magic Number
With the release of III - Candles & Beginnings, Auri are finally taking their show on the road. The unconventional Finnish/Yorkshire power trio of Tuomas Holopainen, Johanna Kurkela and Troy Donockley tell Prog about the lure of intimate shows, mysterious song lyrics, and the magic of music. Just don't expect any Holopainen headbanging.
7 min |
Issue 162
Prog
VMBRA
Manchester quartet hit heavy and soft with radiant prog sound.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
HEATHER FINDLAY
The great and good of progressive music give us a glimpse into their prog worlds.
2 min |
Issue 162
Prog
BIOSCOPE
Popcorn at the ready as Marillion's Steve Rothery and Tangerine Dream's Thorsten Quaeschning deliver cinematic soundscapes and musical moving pictures on widescreen debut album.
3 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Kate: Behind The Camera
Renowned Italian photographer Guido Harari snapped Kate Bush during the commercial peak of her career from 1982 to 1993. In an extract from his book The Kate Inside, he offers a fascinating glimpse into what it was like to work with the singer-songwriter and how the Hounds Of Love press images came about.
8 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Now What?
In 1974, Mike Oldfield defied the critics and hit the top of the UK charts with Hergest Ridge, the ambitious follow-up to his unexpectedly successful debut Tubular Bells. To coincide with the release of the 50th-anniversary edition, the musician, his siblings and collaborators recount the story of an album created by an overwhelmed 21-year-old taking refuge near the Welsh borders.
7 min |
Issue 162
Prog
LOOK Around You
Truth can be stranger than fiction, and that's something Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate embrace on their latest album, The Uncertainty Principle. Moving away from sci-fi and exploring themes of science and human interaction, Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland explain why they took a deep dive into the history books to uncover tales of scientists, spies and nuclear bombs.
5 min |
Issue 162
Prog
Take a bow: STEVEN WILSON
Frank Skinner is barely five minutes into a short but well-received set when he meets Eric.
3 min |
Issue 161
Prog
TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS: YES ALBUM LISTENING GUIDE
Assiduously in-depth study of prog’s cause célèbre.
1 min |
Issue 161
Prog
HIROE
Philadelphian post-rockers demonstrate the art of incremental expansion.
1 min |
Issue 161
Prog
OCEANICA
Try Not To Dwell On It...
1 min |
Issue 161
Prog
JON ANDERSON & THE BAND GEEKS
Jon Anderson loses his way in the middle of Close To The Edge. It’s the opening song of the final show of this leg of the Yes — Epics, Classics & More Tour, and he stops, clearly unsure of his place in the song.
2 min |
Issue 161
Prog
LIKE FATHERS, LIKE SONS
In 2023, Avkrvst emerged from the Norwegian wilderness with a top-notch debut and an impressive record deal. As they ready their second album Waving At The Sky, co-founders Simon Bergseth and Martin Utby explain their familial ties to progressive music.
5 min |
Issue 161
Prog
ZACH TABORI
Attack Of The Clout Chasers
1 min |
Issue 161
Prog
RICHARD SINCLAIR
Every month we get inside the mind of one of the biggest names in music. This issue it's Richard Sinclair. Born and bred in Canterbury, the bassist, guitarist and vocalist is one of the leading voices of the city’s titular scene, co-founding and playing in some of the burgeoning movement's core acts, including Caravan, Hatfield And The North and Camel.
10+ min |
Issue 161
Prog
GREG LAKE
A two-CD plus DVD upgrade of Lake's 2005 show at Stevenage Concert Hall.
1 min |
Issue 161
Prog
NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA
Genre-defying chamber collective return with first original material since 2016.
1 min |
Issue 161
Prog
Analogue Master
On his second solo album, Gamle Mester, Wobbler keyboard player Lars Fredrik Frøislie unleashes a tour de force of old-school analogue wizardry. Lars kindly invites Prog into his magical world of vintage instrumentation to find out more.
5 min |